Oh Hello

[OfficeLinebacker]

Hi. Intro thread.

I am a 33 yo self employed IT consultant who spent 5 years as a mechanic at a service station while I was dropped out of college. 3 of those were full-time, then 2 were part when I went back to school.

I love all things DIY. I mod my HVAC system, my computers, my attic, my bathrooms, my garage, and of course my cars.

Buying my house 5 years ago was a dream come true, as my home truly is my castle, and I run it the way I want to.

Enter a wife and stepkid 2.5 years ago, and getting caught up in a way too stressful work environment, and then leaving my job, and having a readjustment crisis.

Now I have chilled way out on the house thing, but I still do all my automotive work and computer work.

I've always been fascinated with efficiency, and I've always known that at highway speeds, the number one detriment to MPG is wind resistance, so I have been experimenting with that lately.

While recovering from septoplasty, in pain and insomniac, I happened upon this little corner of the internet and realized I had finally arrived. That's right now BTW, so forgive my ramblings. It's the pain, not the codeine--there isn't enough of that.

In an ideal world, I'd have the time and the guts to set my cruise control around 40 MPH every where I go, but in the real world, that would get me pulled over or worse. Since time == money, my main focus is ways to reduce the drag at ~70MPH.

Other than that, I turn of my engine at long stoplights or while deccelerating downhill, always anticipate the next traffic light, etc etc. But I am dying to get my hands dirty with some aero mods on my pair of 2000 Camrys, a V6 an an I4.

Guess that's it.

[SVOboy]

Welcome to the site! having worked in a shop for so long you've prolly got some interesting insight,

[Daox]

Welcome to the site. Definitly have a look over the stickies in each forum. I would look into purchasing a scangauge to better your mileage. They are a huge help.

[MetroMPG]

Welcome. Wow, quite the confluence of interests leading you to this site.

Originally Posted by OfficeLinebacker

I am a 33 yo self employed IT consultant who spent 5 years as a mechanic at a service station

Cool - maybe you'll also be able to offer some encouraging words to our DIY fuel economy gauge project.

time == money

Spoken like a true programmer.

my pair of 2000 Camrys, a V6 an an I4.

If you're going to stick around, definitely post garage entries for your vehicles so folks will have some handy context for your words.

Glad to have another qualified member aboard!

Darin

[MetroMPG]

PS - how did you stumble across us? Just curious.

[cfg83]

OfficeLinebacker -

Welcome to EM! You really have the varied background needed for this stuff. I think having two Camrys with different drivetrains will make for interesting MPG comparisons.

CarloSW2

[OfficeLinebacker]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

PS - how did you stumble across us? Just curious.

I honestly can't remember. Probably reading wikipedia and googling various aero terms in relation to 'car' and/or 'auto' I guess.

I do know for sure there is very little speak of the Coanda effect on this board, so it wasn't that term. And if you got to this post by searching for Coanda effect, hi! Note: I can't be bothered to put the proper accents on 'Coanda.'

Oh and BTW the autoresponder and thread update emails got flagged as spam by Yahoo! small business email, thus the late reply.